Harry Potter and the Veiled Arch
by Lord of No Fate
Summary: What happens if Harry was unrestrained and fell through the Death Arch at the Ministry? First Chapter Canon, AU after that. Pairings undecided. Some bashing, definitely no slash, Soldier!Harry, strong harry, Ministry-bashing. Current rating may change.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, JK Rowling does; I do not own any other copyrighted characters that might come up in this story, the respective owners does. Finally, any and all new characters that show up in this story are mine, you want to borrow my characters; ASK me first, if you do that, chances are I will say yes.

A/N #2: I got the inspiration from a few fanfiction stories, well, the basic idea of it (time travel, future help, alternate reality, etc… you get the idea) credit to where it is due if anyone recognizes a "shell" of their work. Anyway, this is my idea of _**STRUCTURING**_ this particular storyline. I hope the past explanation made sense; you have a question or problem, please contact me.

FYI: I know that the chapter is from the book (and the book's credit goes to J.K. Rowling (fakey smile :D)) but I really cannot be able to come up with something that covers the important points of the first chapter, and I did not want to screw up the story too much…besides, the first chapter is canon and after the last sentence the rest of the story is AU. Therefore, do not worry about the quality of the other chapters, (not too much anyway…) so there's that…Please! Read on! ***not betaed***

***Those of you who were here before, I just basically cut a large part of the story to make it smaller***

Chapter 1

The small spun-glass ball dropped from Neville's pocket and, before either of them could catch it, one of Neville's floundering feet kicked it, making it fly some ten feet to their right and smashed on the step beneath them. As both of them stared at the place where it had broken, appalled at what had happened, a pearly-white figure with hugely magnified eyes rose into the air, unnoticed by any but them…Harry could see its mouth moving, but in all the crashes and screams and yells surrounding them, not one word of the prophecy could he hear. The figure stopped speaking and dissolved into nothingness.

"Harry, Ib sorry!" cried Neville, his face anguished as his legs continued to flounder. "Ib so sorry, Harry, I didn'd bean do -"

"It doesn't matter!" Harry shouted. "Just try and stand, let's get out of -"

"Dubbledore!" said Neville, his sweaty face suddenly transported, staring over Harry's shoulder.

"What?"

"DUBBLEDORE!"

Harry turned to look where Neville was staring. Directly above them, framed in the doorway from the Brain Room, stood Albus Dumbledore, his wand aloft, his face white and furious. Harry felt a kind of electric charge surge through every particle of his body - they were saved. Dumbledore sped down the steps past Neville and Harry, who had no more thoughts of leaving. Dumbledore was already at the foot of the steps when the Death Eaters nearest realized he was there and yelled to the others. One of the Death Eaters ran for it, scrabbling like a monkey up the stone steps opposite. Dumbledore's spell pulled him back as easily and effortlessly as though he had hooked him with an invisible line -

Only one pair was still battling, apparently unaware of the new arrival. Harry saw Sirius duck Bellatrix's jet of red light: he was laughing at her.

"Come on, you can do better than that!" he yelled, his voice echoing around the cavernous room.

The second jet of light hit him squarely on the chest. The laughter had not quite died from his face, but his eyes widened in shock. Harry released Neville, though he was unaware of doing so. He was jumping down the steps again, pulling out his wand, as Dumbledore, too, turned towards the dais. It seemed to take Sirius an age to fall: his body curved in a graceful arc as he sank backwards through the ragged veil hanging from the arch. Harry saw the look of mingled fear and surprise on his godfather's wasted, once-handsome face as he fell through the ancient doorway and disappeared behind the veil, which fluttered

for a moment as though in a high wind, then fell back into place. Harry heard Bellatrix Lestrange's triumphant scream, but knew it meant nothing - Sirius had only just fallen through the archway, he would reappear from the other side any second…but Sirius did not reappear.

"SIRIUS!" Harry yelled. "SIRIUS!"

He had reached the floor, his breath coming in searing gasps. Sirius must be just behind the curtain, he, Harry, would pull him back out…but as he reached the ground and sprinted towards the dais, Lupin made to grab Harry around the chest, but Harry in a fit of desperation managed to slip past him, the other order members, tried to stop Harry, but their efforts were futile as Harry failed to see the stone step, therefore tripping and falling through the Veil. Suddenly, he was frozen in place, suspended in total darkness for a moment before he went through the other side and landed on the floor.

"Ah! Guys here he is, about bloody time Potter!"

A/N: so what do you guys think of this? Do you like it? Please read and review.

A/N 2: one more thing, I thought that it is fair that you all should know that I am going to be busy this summer, I am in college (during school season), and I do homework as well as working in a part-time job that will now pick up the pace as it is summer. What this means is that there _MAY BE _long periods in which I may not post anything. I will update however soon I can, all I ask is patience. Thanks.  
***Story is now AU***


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: if you truly believe that I own Harry Potter, then please give me everything you have (including your girlfriends) and check yourself into the nearest mental Asylum….preferably Gotham Asylum (you know from batman?)

A/N: I have to say: wow I got a lot of traffic for my first chapter and a lot of story alerts… (Sniff I'm so beloved….) anyway this is just a filler but essential to the story and you will see why as you go along. One other thing, yes this is my work (the Harry Potter idea goes to Rowling *rolls eyes*) and will be much unlike the first chapter.

A/N 2: I said it before I'll say it again, as of this chapter we are now AU.  
***Minor swearwords***  
***unbetaed***  
Please, read on.

_***Previously***  
"SIRIUS!" Harry yelled. "SIRIUS!"_

_He had reached the floor, his breath coming in searing gasps. Sirius must be just behind the curtain, he, Harry, would pull him back out…but as he reached the ground and sprinted towards the dais, Lupin made to grab Harry around the chest, but Harry in a fit of desperation managed to slip past him, the other order members, tried to stop Harry but their efforts were futile as Harry failed to see the stone step, therefore tripping and falling through the Veil._

Chapter 2

The Order of the Phoenix was a subdued group as they witnessed the Boy-Who-Lived follow his Godfather through the Veil. Dumbledore had a moment of utter shock and despair for the loss of Harry, before his overly scheming mind kicked into overdrive. "Those that are still able to walk, take the injured and leave this place, I will deal with the Minister." The other Order members who were relatively unscathed worked to comply with Dumbledore's order by going to one of the injured and casting a levitating spell to pick up and move the friend. Since they were not on par with Dumbledore or Voldemort…they were only able to move one person at a time, whereas Dumbledore can move multiple bodies and made the work go more smoothly. However, Dumbledore was content to let the Order members do the work as he felt that he had time.

What Dumbledore failed to notice during the moment of confusion and anguish over the loss of Harry, was Bellatrix. Being the only Death Eater not bound, stunned, or otherwise dealt with; she quietly but quickly moved around enervating the unconscious death eaters, gathering them up and quietly going out the door and into the streets of London. This, in effect, left no evidence that Death Eaters were even in the Ministry that night. What _they_ failed to notice, was the small, tingly sensation of magic washing over them as they passed out the door to the Department of Mysteries.

While all of this was happening, three men in unspeakable robes were walking, from wherever they came from, into the Death Room where the order was. Dumbledore saw them and recognized them for who they were and he walked to them, intending to buy the Order some time to leave in case they were not well received. The leading unspeakable had his hood down while his two other co-workers had theirs up. "Mr. Croaker…" Dumbledore began but was cut off by said person.  
"Albus, I am being uncharacteristically kind by even allowing you to leave," While he was speaking, his subordinates had moved of their own volition, and were examining the room. "Therefore, I will be giving you-and your group- 30 minutes to leave my department before I hold you as prisoner--" One of the unspeakables examining the room gave the man an unknown hand gesture that he recognized at once, he looked at Dumbledore and amended, "Scratch that you need to be gone in 10 minutes."  
Happy that he was not in trouble with the head of the Department of Mysteries, Dumbledore quickly levitated the remainder of the injured Order members and helped the rest out of the department.

"Sir, they are out of the department."  
"Are their memories modified?"  
"Yes, Sir"  
"Then lock down the department and put out Shadow Alert."  
"Yes, Sir"

The door to the Department of Mysteries gave an ominous squelch and was silent. To anyone in the nearby area, they heard the squelch of a Colloportus being used on the door, and promptly forgot about it. Back in the Atrium, the Order members arrived at the Floo Grates and were carefully moving the injured members through where Poppy at Hogwarts was waiting to receive them. A few minutes later and the last of the injured were gone, with that done the uninjured then went through the floo to Grimmauld Place to rest and recover. The last having gone through, Dumbledore just closed the connections to both locations when Fudge and a number of Aurors came through another floo connection.  
"Here's to a long evening" thought Dumbledore.

***Two and a half days later***  
***Hogwarts Castle***

It had been a very long two and a half days for everyone involved, all of Hogwarts knew the debacle that was the DOM, Fudge was demanding the children that were with Harry arrested, and even issued an arrest warrant for Harry on a number of charges that were so true if they were to go to trial now, Harry would get Azkaban for life. On top of that, the prophecy orb broke in the fight, which was both good and bad the reasons known only to Dumbledore, the other issue was that with Harry untimely journey through the Veil, the other children to go with him did not take the news too well. Dumbledore had to make them take an unbreakable oath never to tell anyone this piece of far, the only ones who knew the true truth were Harry's DOM group, the Order, and Snape. Dumbledore made Snape take a number of special oaths and vows to not reveal the information to Voldemort no matter what. Needless to say, it was like Christmas with a side of five birthdays had come early for him, and he was grinning like never before…it was rather scary, he even issued no homework to all of his classes-which was unheard of.

Dumbledore had to work overtime to keep the disaster in the making contained before it got out. He had even managed to work out an agreement of sorts with Fudge: get Umbridge out of the forest and in return he will drop all attention on the other kids who went with Harry as well as dropping all charges against him and allow him back as headmaster, he complied with this rather quickly. She recovered quickly and was back in her the position of High Inquisitor and DADA instructor, Fudge had made known the issue was non-negotiable. (Dumbledore was sure there was a loud wailing from Hogwarts when the students found out, but it was still unconfirmed…)

The next to last issue was the sudden disappearance of the injured Death Eaters, upon reflection, he realized he made the crucial mistake of letting Bellatrix go unchecked, he supposed that that was how they had disappeared so quickly and quietly. "Tom is going to have a Field Day with this" Dumbledore groaned. The meeting with Fudge on this topic did not go over too well, for starters, there were too many inconsistencies and not enough evidence (Death Eaters as prisoners) to back it up. Dumbledore was still stumped with the inconsistencies. "How the bloody hell did that happened I saw with my own eyes!!!" me mentally raged while keeping a calm and serene face as he was still in the same room with Fudge.

Finally, Dumbledore considered the issue that was Harry's disappearance, what the bloody hell had happened? Where did he go? Was he even alive? He had nothing but concern for his Supreme Weap—uh Supreme Hope for everyone…yeah that was it. However that was not even the least of his problems, apparently the Department of Mysteries seems to have closed itself off from everyone else and was not even allowing the Minister in much less make a fire call. It was a small victory for Dumbles at least, that the head of the Department of Mysteries was snubbing the Minister of magic. However, he himself was unable to gain access to investigate the Arch to locate Harry…what happened in the Department to cause it close itself off?

***Department of Mysteries***

The unspeakable known as Croaker was standing to the side of the Arch, when another unspeakable came up to him and gruffly said, "Croaker, how have you been?"  
Croaker glanced at him and replied, "Oddball it's good to see you again, and I've been fine."  
"So…the sigil has been activated then?"  
"…yes, it has, there is a connection, but it is inactive…for how long, there is no answer to that…"  
"Then we wait and see, we wait and see…"

The two unspeakables were both looking at a spot close to the base of the Arch where there was a semi-small, black symbol blinking on and off, again and again.

***Keep in mind that the first few chapters will be pretty much setting up the stage so to speak, after that…let the mayhem begin (cackles evilly)***

A/N: Read and Review!!!!!!

Challenge: Guess who Oddball is before I reveal who Oddball is!!!!! (That's probably 3 to 4 chapters, depends really on how the story goes.)


	3. Author's note

Hey guys,  
Just a quick heads up, one of the readers (you know who you are, thanks!) brought a few things to my attention, and he "helped" me to realize that I was not satisfied with the contents of the first two chapters and that the readers may not either. So, I cut a large part of the first chapter to make it more bearable for all involved. As for the second chapter, I changed a few things here and there and added some small stuff to make the chapter better. I recommend a quick look-over of the first chapter if you don't want to miss anything…but that is not likely, but I do recommend re-reading the second chapter as there is some significant information added since you last checked.

Anyway, I recommend going back now to recheck the chapters, as they will be up at this time.

One last thing, I may have been overstating things when I said that I may take a while to get the next chapter up: I seem to have finished the third chapter (we'll see if I like it) so all that is left to do is put it on the computer, so I may have it out sooner than I thought…

*Once I have the third chapter finished, I will replace this note with the actual chapter*


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